This is one of the findings from the latest Channel Pulse report from business consultants Blue Touch Paper (BTP).  (Channel Pulse is a concierge programme that delivers custom market intelligence, focused on communication and collaboration.) Exploring eight key business workflow areas, the latest report collects the thoughts of BTP’s Collaboration Advisory Board (CAB) – a global community of industry channel professionals – on how organisations are planning to stay relevant in this dynamic environment.   

The world is moving from client conversations based around specification and features, purchased though capital expenditure, to solution sales dominated by platform relevance, driven by data and AI outcomes, purchased though operational expenditure. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, meeting spaces remain the heartbeat of the corporate AV industry, serving as the entry point for larger projects. While commoditisation and DIY solutions are impacting this area, the focus is shifting towards mid to large meeting spaces where technology and specialism play a significant role. The volume opportunity is now found in scale, services, and lifecycle management. 

High-impact spaces are strategically important as they are used for executive meetings with strong collaboration capabilities. These spaces allow channel partners to deliver true value add, driven by the need for higher quality, flexible spaces covering in person and hybrid meetings through to experiential engagement (think Google Beam). 

Once a niche area, corporate broadcast has grown in importance since the pandemic. Organisations now emphasise the need to communicate with a dispersed and hybrid workforce using in-house broadcast capabilities. This move has created opportunities for those with the skills to deliver high-quality and often complex audio and video solutions. 

The shift from legacy PBX to cloud-based telephony solutions is evident, as is the shift from traditional desktop phone to headsets and soft clients. There is a real dichotomy of support for this area of the workflow, with many CAB members opting to offer a supply-only model for the hardware, due to the investment needed to enter this market. 

Contact centres are evolving from traditional voice-centric call centres to cloud-native, AI-driven, omnichannel engagement hubs. This transformation is creating opportunities for integrators to deliver true value add, although it requires significant investment in expertise.  The majority reported that such an investment does not feature in their future business plans. 

Workspace management is expanding beyond meeting spaces to include wayfinding, scheduling, and booking systems. Most integrators recognise this as an opportunity to deliver scalable solutions that optimise employee and customer experience and offer (or plan to offer) these as extensions to their existing business, combined with data-driven insights. 

Integral to conversations across all aspects of workflow is AI, which is quickly becoming the ‘red thread’ from workspace management to collaboration solutions. The implementation of AI is still in its early stages, but it is seen as a critical enabler for productivity gains and data-driven decision-making. Unsurprisingly most integrators are still working out how they can monetise and scale AI through their own businesses as well as for their clients. 

Manage, monitor, control focuses attention on platforms and services that enable the management of products remotely, with AI playing a significant role in enhancing the capabilities. The ultimate goal is to deliver long-term user value whilst creating client entanglement, through services such as proactive management delivered by the integrator on behalf on the client. 

The AV and UC industry is undergoing rapid transformation, with a clear shift from ‘product-centric’ to ‘service and data-driven’ models. The future belongs to those who invest in service, integration, and data-driven value, moving beyond hardware to become strategic partners, shaping the future of work.  

The CAB delivered three big takeaways: 

• Profit has moved - restructure all areas of the business to reflect a shift from hardware sales to reoccurring service sales capex to opex. 

• AI everywhere - Every element of the workflow is influenced by AI, address the need for additional skills and competencies within your business 

• Data is king - Create services to help clients manage their workflow and devices and actioning the insights that are created 

Stay informed!

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